Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Wednesday matinee

Hey all. I’m back after a couple of days off. Not much in the way of morning news, as is typical for a day game after a night game.

Manager Terry Francona is quite pleased with the way Jonathan Papelbon is throwing the ball.

The closer is 1-2 with a 1.69 ERA and has converted all nine of his save opportunities.

“I think, when I say he’s on a good run, I think Pap’s career has been a good run,” Francona said. “He’s in a good place right now. He’s been staying in his delivery. I think he’s confident in that. I think he goes through times, and he’s probably talked about it openly, staying in his delivery. But he’s throwing all three pitches. He’s commanding. It’s a good combination. He’s pitching. I think, when he was in Toronto that night, I know his back was sore. But it seemed like, sometimes that is the case, guys have to think. Sometimes hitters, the best day they have are when they have their worst BP. They go into the game with such good concentration. It’s kind of weird how things work but he is throwing the ball really well and he’s using all his pitches.”

If you want to see some more of my early thoughts on the Red Sox, check out this link.

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6 Comments

Enough already.

This umpire crew must have left their dogs and their canes in the dugout! The collective incompetence is unbelievable. Strikes 6-8 inches off the plate! And btw, Alex Gonzalez’ hit off the top of the wall yesterday was a homer. It seems everyone, including the Bosox knew it. We need to review every single play and call in the majors, and compile statistics for all umps in general as well as all individuals. I don’t expect perfection from human beings, but comparisons to a std are certainly in order. In an umpire’s bad calls are within 1 std. deviation of the mean, that’s ok, between 1 and 2, he’s on probation, beyond 2, he’s fired..

Umping was not particularly stellar in any of these games . There were bad calls made on both teams . The strike zone expanded and shrunk with each batter and very few umpires call the high strike . Wells was safe at first in today’s game , Jays got shafted just as much as the Sox . I thought after all the terrible calls last year, especially in the WS, things might improve but they haven’t .

Ortiz’s AB was crucial. The called strike 3 was ball 4, a ball anyway no matter how you looked at it. It’s a shame that Wake’s quality start went for naught. But again, if the team got shut out for 8 innings, the odds of winning the game is iffy. Hate to see a game was lost on the bad call. Go Sox.

Hi All – I listened to most of the game on the radio yesterday – I DID see the 9th inning…hmmmm…a few of those calls by Dale Scott? This is an interesting article with graphics of where the pitches landed and what they were called:

The pitch was so outside. If Ortiz had swung at that ball 4, he should be benched for life. Funny that the ump didn’t toss Ortiz for violently arguing. But again the offense or lack thereof lost the game. If the offense scored a couple of runs, Wake would likely not pitch in the 7th or be pulled if a man got on base.

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